The Best Christmas

It was a really wonderful Christmas, full of traditions and joy. On Christmas Eve, we all got ready for church and made our way to the service. Charlotte was dressed in her most adorable outfit (as usual). We even opened a few presents before church. Roger and I are horrible about waiting. After church, we came home to what has become our "traditional meal" of pizza and wine. A nice, low-key, easy (and yummy) way to celebrate the day. Once we had all eaten, it was time to open presents. The family presents were opened one after another and we marveled at ALL the stuff for Charlotte. There were, as usual, about twice as many presents for Charlotte as there were for Roger and myself combined. Tis the reason for the season, eh? It's all about the kids.

Once all the family presents were opened, it was time to settle into bed. Charlotte got to sleep easily so Santa could do his job. When the morning dawned bright and early, we took Charlotte into the living room to see what Santa had left. We were excited to share in her glee as she opened the "pony phone" that she had been requesting for the last four months!

Yes, it was a wonderful Christmas.

Last year. 2008.

So much has changed since then. At that time, we were oblivious to all of this. Unaware of the year that lay ahead. Unaware of the monstrous tumor that was already a substantial size and growing in her brain. Charlotte was a "normal" kid. Singing, dancing, working on being potty-trained, playing with friends, already beginning to read. She was doing all the things that preschoolers do. For us, cancer was something that happened to other people. Other families. Cancer was the thing that we fought through walk-a-thons and annual donations to St. Judes. We didn't know we would very soon have to go nine rounds in the ring with Cancer...only to be knocked down over and over throughout the year.

This Christmas, on the other hand, has been pretty sucky. (To put it bluntly.) Despite everything that our network and friends have done for us (and there have been wonderful things coming our way for which we are MOST appreciative), it is still just a difficult holiday.

It's challenging to be joyful.

We did not engage in many of our regular traditions: the annual Christmas letter did not go out (but you do get daily blog posts...how GREEN of us!); we did not participate in the regular gift exchange to family and friends (although we have been the recipient of some very healthy and very yummy food and wine); we did not attend Christmas Eve service although we did Skype into the service at my home church in Daytona Beach where Aunt Jamie was singing (beautifully, as usual).

I realized something last night as I was finishing Charlotte's late evening medications and preparing to fall asleep on the trundle bed next to her: in many ways, she is already gone. She may be breathing and eating and even responsive to our stories and queries, but the Charlotte that we knew and loved...her personality and her spirit and her voice are all but gone. She cannot walk. She can barely talk. She cannot interact with us as she could even two weeks ago.

Even the most innocuous things will make me sad. I was watching a Rice Krispies commercial where the mom and two kids are decorating rice krispy treats for the holidays. The girl in the commercial is around four. She is talking and decorating and participating in the activity. And I think: Charlotte will NEVER do that again. She couldn't do it now if she tried. These are the things that make me sad.

I went to work yesterday and it was a mixed experience. It was nice to see some of our regular customers and I was able to use the time to get caught up on some very important RNR work. It also gave me an opportunity to get out of the house. All good things. Then, you get the random person who comes in who knows about Charlotte's situation but has not kept up with the blog posts and perhaps has not seen us in a few weeks or months. They say things like, "So is Charlotte excited about Santa?" or "So how's that pretty little girl of yours doing?". They obviously don't know. And how do you tell them? Do you ruin their Christmas? Do you say, "Well, she's in the final stages of her life right now and we don't really know how many days we have left with her. She is completely bedridden and hooked up to medications constantly and she's going to die. Other than that, we can't complain."

Yeah, there's no right answer to those questions. You just kind of smile, nod your head, say something obscure like, "She's ok" and move on. But it's comments like that which will smack you back into reality and make your heart ache.

I am ready for this year to end. More importantly, I am ready for Charlotte's life to end. I will miss her when she is gone. She will leave a huge hole in our lives and in my heart. But her life as we knew it is already over and this has been the most difficult year of MY life. I hope this post doesn't ruin everyone else's Christmas. As usual, I am seizing the opportunity to be brutally honest.

Before I close, I will just piggyback on Roger's previous post about the Butterflyaway event on December 27th (and probably again on January 2nd). I think this will be a great opportunity for parents to help their kids understand what is happening (and what will happen) to Charlotte. We hope that as many people who want to attend can make it. If you cannot make it and still have questions about how to handle this with your kids, please let us know individually. We have a lot of resources through Noah's Children and ASK that can be of service. Also, if you as a parent want to attend without your kids just so you can ask your own questions or figure out how to share this information on your own, that is ok too.

A Blessed Christmas and a Peaceful New Year to one and all.